OCLC reviews

2.8

35% would recommend to a friend

(283 total reviews)
avatar

David Prichard

28% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

OCLC has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 283 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The OCLC employee rating is 27% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

283 reviews
1.0
Jul 28, 2025

Morale is Low and Leadership is Out of Touch

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Libraries are important and we still try to help them.

Cons

If you're considering working at OCLC, here’s what you should know: morale is at an all-time low, and leadership decisions over the past several months have only deepened the disconnect between employees and executives. The timeline speaks for itself: A hiring freeze was enacted three months ago. The company terminated all contractors two months ago. All recruiters were let go just a month later. Most recently, 100 employees were laid off globally. In the same breath, employees were told we should feel "thankful to still have jobs." Raises? Cancelled. Executive bonuses? Still on track as usual for September. And just to add salt to the wound, we were treated to a "heartfelt" message from the president about how hard things are for him. The company's priorities are clear, and unfortunately, its employees are not among them. Decisions are made with little transparency and even less regard for how they impact the workforce. What was once a mission-driven organization now feels like a top-heavy corporation desperately trying to stay afloat by cutting from the bottom. This isn't just a rough patch. It's a systemic issue in leadership, communication, and culture. Proceed with caution. (Written with AI because we're required to use it for everything.)

1.0
Jul 28, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits, nice campus, and free breakfast Tuesday, Starbucks coffee and soda

Cons

Most middle management has been there since the 1990s and just trying to ride out their time to retirement. Upper management is tone deaf to its employees. Data Operations is under staffed and unpaid while they are trying to migrate data without a data governance group. The data science group doesn't really do data science and is more a data engineering group.

2.0
Jul 17, 2025

Don’t believe the hype

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Building is nice. Good benefits. The people are generally nice.

Cons

- Management is incompetent. It’s a boys club of the CEOs buddies. The C-suite would be directors (at best) at any other company. - CEO is a mix between a used car salesman and a bad motivational speaker. He uses company resources ($ and man hours) to promote his “personal brand”. - There are a lot of folks there that stay because they genuinely care about libraries. He exploits this. - You may have seen other reviews say that he publicly mocked survey feedback at town halls. True. He tried to stifle any sort of criticism via public humiliation. - In terms of growth, you will likely find yourself taking on more and more responsibilities, absorbing roles of folks as they leave. You will never see a dime for this, let alone any sort of title change or promotion. If you’re looking to grow a career, this is not the place for you. If you’re looking to ride out the rest of your career with mediocre pay, decent benefits and terrible leadership, this is the place! You might even be management material.

Viewing 19 - 21 of 283 Reviews

Glassdoor has 333 OCLC reviews submitted anonymously by OCLC employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if OCLC is right for you.